Wisdom Beyond Measure
by Aylatha
Summary: When Elinor Shiras is integrated into her class, prefect Lilian Achura gets more than she bargained for - for if there is one thing Elinor is good at, it's keeping secrets. While trying to unravel this mystery, Lily has her own problems to deal with - Voldemort's back, Fudge in denial, and her parents are Aurors working for the Order... and that's really just the beginning...
1. Prologue: Vengeance

**A/N: This fanfiction is about my OCs Lilian Achura and Elinor Shiras, my first RPG-characters. Since they have a rather complicated background, I decided to write this. The story is set during Harry's 5th year, but he and his friends will not appear that often. I tried to depict all characters as accurately as possible, but, seeing as this story is not told from Harry's PoV, some people might act a little differently than they do around him.**

**The cover shows Lily and Elinor in medieval clothing, because the LotR-maker (and similar ones) are the only ones where you can create several dolls at once, and I just love this one. So there.  
**

**The prologe is very short, but the chapters are longer, so please do not use this as reference.**

**Disclaimer: all characters belong to J.K. Rowling, except Lily, Elinor and their respective families/house elves. This applies to all of the story.**

* * *

**Vengeance**

* * *

Panting slightly, he dashed down the dark alleyway, looking for his prey. She had to be close, he knew.

He wasn't even thinking about using his wand to find her. Taunting her into revealing herself would be so much better.

"What is the matter, Abigail? Are you too scared to stand up to me after successfully murdering my mother?! I didn't know that being a Death Eater entailed being a coward!"

Tabatha had actually been his mother-in-law, but Roland didn't care about such little details. She had been family, and family was to be protected or – in case of murder – avenged.

He was in a strange way happy to see his taunt had had the intended effect. Abby came out from her hiding place to confront him directly.

While she – being a Death Eater – knew more about black magic than he'd ever find out, he had an advantage – he was an Auror. Albeit a young one. And she was a year younger than him, so he didn't expect her to be too overly powerful.

His words had made her angry, and with a growl, she sent a curse flying in his direction. Roland dodged and retaliated, and soon, the whole alley was glowing brightly with the light from a variety of curses and jinxes. Both duellists were determined to kill the other.

A curse rebounding from the ground hit his left knee and Roland cursed. Abigail laughed, clearly delighted that she had managed to land a hit. Roland's mood sank – if possible – even further.

She blocked his next spell with a shield charm, but dropped it instantly to resume her attack – which was exactly what he had been anticipating. So he sent a second curse right after the first. Having not enough time to react, Abigail was smashed into the wall. There was a sickening crunching noise as several bones in her body were shattered.

Roland lowered his wand and looked down at the lifeless figure.

_I had better inform my unworthy "cousin" of his wife's demise. And I need to tell Alice to mark her as dead._

Abby had been his wife's cousin; she had turned away from the family and joined the Death Eaters. And now she had murdered her own aunt. The blood relation made her crime even worse in his eyes.

Roland quickly checked the injury on his knee, then he turned on the spot and disappeared with a soft popping noise.

* * *

**A/N: I know the actual quote is "wit beyond measure", but I didn't like that as a title.**


	2. A World Completely Unknown to Her

**A World Completely Unknown to Her**

* * *

A loud hissing sound drowned out the chatter of the many people around her and steam billowed in clouds around them.

_I can see why they call it a "steam engine"._

The crowd and the noises made her nervous and she glanced around warily, not sure what to expect. All children usually looked forward to attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but not Elinor Shiras.

Until now, her parents had educated her at home, they had got a special permission from the Ministry of Magic for that purpose. After all, they had to made sure no Muggle found out about magic.

But that had never been a problem, since Elinor had barely ever left the house she had grown up in. Even though she would turn 15 this winter, she had not met many people in her life.

Mr and Mrs Shiras had decided that she should go to Hogwarts for the last three years, so she could do her NEWTs and OWLs and graduate like any other magical child. So far, magicians sent by the Ministry had checked on her progress. While Elinor was very good at remembering facts and instructions and could answer any written exams without failure, she had troubles with oral ones and using spells could actually be dangerous – even though she knew how to perform them exactly the right way. She always needed some time to calm herself and concentrate before she could risk using magic.

Herbology or Potions had never been a problem, since there were no incantations needed. And in history she was good as well. She was also interested in Divination, but her parents weren't gifted in that area, so she had not had any lessons on that subject. Elinor was also a talented flyer and her parents expected her to go to the try-outs of her future House's Quidditch Team. But there was that other power – a talent Elinor possessed that her parents must never find out about. She didn't even dare think about possible consequences.

Another loud noise made Elinor flinch. Both her eyes and ears were very sharp – for the reason that this enabled her to detect possible dangers more efficiently. And right now, this was a painful experience. Not that pain was a new thing to her.

"It is time", Timothy Shiras said. "You should go."

Elinor only nodded in reply. She didn't feel that she needed to say something.

"Study hard, and make us no shame", Lydia Shiras warned.

Again, her daughter nodded. Grabbing the handle of her trunk, she started to drag it towards the train. Since she, unlike other children, no longer had the Trace on her, she could use magic whenever she liked. A simple spell made her trunk float into the train and down the corridor. Elinor didn't once look back.

Hogwarts would be completely different from the world she knew, and her parents had told her everything about the old castle she needed to know. She would be sharing a room with other girls of her age, young witches from all over the country. There would be the Common Room for doing homework, the library for studying, the Great Hall for the meals and the castle grounds. What they were exactly for, Elinor didn't know, but she assumed the Quidditch Pitch would be there. Each subject would be taught by a different teacher, and each teacher would have his or her own classroom.

She had also been taught the names of each teacher: McGonagall for Transfigurations, Snape for Potions, Sprout for Herbology, Flitwick for Charms, Trelawney for Divination, Vector for Arithmancy, Burbage for Muggle Studies, Babbling for Ancient Runes, a witch from the ministry called Umbrige for Defence against the Dark Arts and Hagrid for Care of Magical Creatures.

Not that Elinor planned on taking that subject. Most of the various magical beasts roaming the world she was terribly afraid of. She also saw little point in taking Muggle Studies – not because she disliked them in particular or felt herself too superior to learn about them. No, she simply didn't see how that should ever help her in life. That left Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Divination. Divination she would take for sure, but she couldn't really make up her mind about the other two.

And another question that needed to be resolved was which House she would be sorted into. Slytherin (Snape) wasn't an option. Her parents would kill her if she was sorted into that one. They preferred Ravenclaw (Flitwick) or Gryffindor (McGonagall), but they would tolerate Hufflepuff (Sprout) as well. As long as it wasn't the snakes.

Finally stumbling upon an empty compartment, she slid the door open and made her luggage float up onto the luggage rack. She then sat down at the window and looked outside, feeling nothing. Just dread.

Soon, other students joined her, but they didn't seem to notice her. Elinor had already discovered that if she remained silent and motionless, people tended to forget she was there. Some of them shot curious glances in her direction, but not for long. Elinor didn't look like she wanted attention or to make conversation, after all.

Around midday, a rather fat witch with a trolley appeared to sell food and sweets. Elinor showed no reaction, since she wasn't hungry. Partly that was because every hour, minute, second, brought her closer to Hogwarts and she was already very nervous, the other reason was that Elinor always gobbled down as much food as possible whenever she could. Her parents loved to punish her with cancelling her meals, so she wasn't used to eating on a regular basis. She had learned to endure days without food and this morning, she had eaten a lot. This inconsistent eating behaviour had led to her being very thin. She wasn't in any danger to be suspected to have anorexia, but anyone looking closely would notice she was too thin for her age.

Elinor pushed a strand of her curly blonde hair out of her face and watched her fellow students out of the corner of her eye. They were all busy eating and chatting, all of them were either in the same house, year or family. Elinor wondered why they bothered talking so much. There really was no need for that.

It was growing dark outside when they finally approached their destination. The others changed into their uniforms and Elinor was glad to see she had been travelling with a group of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Since she had no uniform yet, she put on the simple black cloak her parents had bought her. Again, the others looked at her curiously, but she ignored them. Instead, she concentrated on levitating her trunk down without killing anyone.

"Hey, you know we're not allowed to do magic away from school, don't you?", one of the Ravenclaws asked.

"Don't make such a fuss, there are no Muggles on this train", a Gryffindor replied.

"Yeah, but still. Rules are rules."

She looked at Elinor expectantly.

Instead of answering her, Elinor pulled a piece of parchment from her pocked and held it out to them. Their eyes widened.

"A special permit from the Ministry! You've been home-schooled, then?"

Elinor nodded while pocketing the form.

"Not very talkative, are you?"

She ignored that.

"Anyway, you can leave your stuff here, they'll take it up to the school for you."

Elinor nodded to indicate she had understood.

The train came to a halt and suddenly, all of them were busy gathering belongings and pets. Elinor waited until they had all filed out through the door, then she followed.

It was dark outside, only the light from the lanterns lit the surroundings.

"Firs' years this way! Firs' years!", a loud and deep voice boomed.

Looking in the direction it had come from, Elinor spotted a huge man carrying a lantern. She stared at him. The word "giant" leapt into her mind at once, but she had learned they were about seven meters tall, and this one wasn't.

_He could be a half-giant, I suppose. That would explain his size._

Giants weren't exactly known to be friendly people and she wasn't about to go near a half-giant, either. Anyway, she wasn't a first-year, so he hadn't even been talking to _her._

Ignoring the man, she followed the other students towards a long row of carriages. And what she saw – or rather didn't see – made her stop dead. She knew carriages were usually drawn by horses. But there were none to be seen, and yet the carriage at the front started to move.

"Go on", someone complained, shoving her towards the next carriage. Elinor's thoughts raced.

_Invisible creatures. What could they be? I doubt the school would use anything the Ministry considers dangerous, so that eliminates some possibilities. Besides, some of those creatures would be too weak to pull a carriage. So – what could it be?_

And then realisation dawned. Thestrals.

A winged horse would be very well able to pull such a vehicle. And only those who had seen death could see them.

_Hm. Maybe I should kill someone to test my theory. Perhaps a Slytherin? Mother and Father would be delighted, I am sure._

To Elinor, thinking ill of Slytherins was the most natural thing in the world. They were pure-blood fanatics, used Black Magic and their parents were all in league with Voldemort.

Elinor was a pure-blood herself, but her parents had brought her up in an entirely different way.

She climbed into one of the carriages and watched as the castle came in sight and drew slowly nearer. It was a breathtaking sight, she had to admit.

While walking up to the castle, she managed to get into someone else's way again and that someone almost knocked her off her feet.

"Watch where you're going!", he snapped as he strode past her.

Noticing the colour of the pale blonde boy's uniform, she made a rude sound in her mind.

_Slytherin._

Two big boys looking like bodyguards followed him and Elinor resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

Once inside the Entrance Hall, Elinor soon spotted a witch wearing emerald robes watching the crowd of students closely. As if sensing her gaze, the other woman looked directly at her and beckoned.

"You must be Miss Shiras", she said.

It wasn't exactly phrased as a a question, but Elinor thought it good to nod.

"Come with me."

_Green. Is she somehow related to Slytherin House? No. Can't be. Their Head of House is a man. Snape._

The woman turned and strode away, up the marble staircase that dominated the room. Elinor hurried after her, not wanting to get lost on her very first day.

* * *

Sighing contently, Lilian looked around the Great Hall. Even though the food served by the house elves at her mother's manor was as good as the one here, her parents didn't approve of wasting food and so the dishes to choose from were by far not so many. But Hogwarts, having to feed hundreds of students every day, could afford and even had to offer so many different kinds of food. So, she was definitely looking forward to dinner.

Lily had been nominated Prefect for Ravenclaw this summer, along with Terry Boot, a boy from her class. For Slytherin it was Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson (Lily couldn't stand either of them), for Gryffindor Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, Potter's best friends, and for Hufflepuff Hannah Abbott and Ernest Macmillan. She got along rather well with any of those.

Despite being from two of the oldest pure-blood families in the country, Lilian had been raised not to think of herself better than those born under different circumstances. No-one could choose his family, after all. And she had two (or one) rather not respectable relatives herself.

But for all their liberal attitude, the Achuras had a family secret to hide. The name of her father wasn't particularly special in itself, it was her mother's blood and lineage that was interesting. Through her mother and deceased grandmother, Lilian was descended in direct line from Rowena Ravenclaw herself. However, the family had died out in the male line centuries ago and so the name had vanished. And since unlike in most of the other families, the estate was passed on to the eldest child regardless of sex, Lily would be the third matriarch in line.

The heirs of Ravenclaw had never boasted with their famous ancestor, and eventually, their relation had been forgotten. During the last war against Voldemort, Lady Tabatha had thought it wise to keep this matter a secret altogether and only people marrying into the family were allowed to know. Her daughter Alice had followed her advise, and revived it again as Voldemort returned. However, they could not be sure he didn't already know. And the reason for that was called Abigail Macnair.

That was the darkest chapter in her family's history. Abigail had been her grandmother's niece, her father being Tabatha's younger brother. After school, she had shown an eager interest in the Dark Arts and, what was even worse, married a Death Eater. That had resulted in her becoming an outcast from the family. Even though the consequences hadn't been as drastic as they would have been in some other pure-blood families where the children didn't behave in a way their parents wanted them to, Tabatha had still made it very clear Abby would never inherit anything, even if her own line should die out. That had probably been the reason why Abigail had killed her in the end.

But no-one knew whether she had told her husband or Voldemort about their heritage before her own death.

_I guess we'll find out soon enough. Since he's back, he's bound to come after me or my parents. Both won't be easy, though. Hogwarts is well protected – as is our home._

Their family residence in Devon was officially called Powderham Castle, a name also well known among the Muggles, who believed her family to be ordinary land-owning nobles. Among those who knew the secret it was called Ravenclaw Manor.

Lily had been surprised to see that all the Heads of Houses were missing, as well as Dumbledore. But there was a new addition to the teachers – Dolores Jane Umbridge, who had been sent by the Ministry. Lilian's family wasn't exactly happy about that. Being members of the Order of the Phoenix, they knew that the Ministry didn't trust the old headmaster and had sent her as a watchdog.

Lily had been instructed not to do anything that might draw suspicion to herself or her family. Both her parents were Aurors, and if they lost their jobs, this would be a hard blow for the Order. Not so much for the family, since they were very rich. Quick minds and some favourable marriages had helped to increase their wealth as the centuries passed.

Lily drummed her fingers onto the table. Not very lady-like, she knew, but she was rather impatient for the Sorting to start. And she was pretty hungry by now.

Finally, Dumbledore and the others entered the hall. While he, Snape, McGonagall and Sprout headed straight for their seats, Flitwick led a girl with blonde hair and pale-blue eyes over to Ravenclaw Table. Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, Miss Achura. There will be an addition to your class this year. This is Miss Elinor Shiras, she was being home-schooled by her parents. Please look after her and help her settle in", her teacher squeaked.

"Of course, Professor", Lily replied.

Being a Prefect now, she considered looking after her fellow students as much one of her duties as making sure they didn't break any more rules than absolutely necessary.

She moved to make space for Elinor to sit down.

"Welcome to Ravenclaw, Elinor!", she said, smiling at the other girl.

Elinor didn't reply or react in any way, and Lilian was surprised to notice she wasn't even looking at her, but at a point somewhere above her left shoulder. It gave the impression she _was_ looking at her, though.

"She's a bit shy", Flitwick murmured as Elinor took the offered seat. "Don't expect her to be too open or talkative."

Lily nodded. Flitwick made his way to the teacher's table, for in the meantime, the first-years had entered the hall.

Elinor did show some curiosity now, even though having experienced the Sorting herself just minutes ago. Lilian guessed that the head teachers and Dumbledore had decided to do this in McGonagall's or his office, to spare her the awkward situation of being the only fifth-year among all the small ones. Lily thought this to be very considerate, especially since standing in front of the whole school surely wouldn't help Elinor to calm down. For she had noticed that the new one often glanced about or started when someone behind her spoke.

_I don't think that's because she's shy. She seems scared to me._

Then again, every first-year was a bit intimidated by Hogwarts, the teachers and even the older students. Elinor had been home-schooled, and Lily suspected that it was harder for a fifteen-year old to get used to all that.

Finally, the Sorting was over and Ravenclaw House had gained some new students, and the feast began. Lilian helped herself to her favourite dishes, noticing that Elinor apparently wanted to try a little of each, but ate with an abnormal speed. As if she was scared someone would take her plate away if she didn't empty it fast enough.

"There's no rush", Lily told her. "We don't need to go anywhere tonight, after all."

Elinor looked up, clearly surprised.

"Oh, that's right, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Lilian Achura, a Ravenclaw Prefect. Feel free to call me Lily."

The other one's eyes widened slightly at that, apparently she had heard about herself or her family before. Which in itself wasn't really surprising.

After the meal, Dumbledore rose to hold his annual speech, but was interrupted by Umbridge, who apparently thought it necessary to let the students know her silly thoughts. Lilly listened, liking that woman less every second, and as the meaning of her words sunk in, she let out a small hiss.

_Unbelievable!_

Next to her, Elinor gave her a surprised look, probably because Lilian dared to show her disagreement. Lily would have liked nothing better than jumping up and telling Umbridge what a stupid old hag she was, but that would reveal her family's standing in this matter and besides, such a behaviour would be highly inappropriate. So she contended herself with killing Umbridge with looks.

A quick glance towards the Gryffindor Table told her she wasn't the only one knowing what was going on here. Hermione Granger was already filling her friends in.

Lily sighed. Harry Potter had managed to escape Voldemort _again _and had so been able to warn the wizarding world of the crisis it was facing, and what did the Ministry do? Call him a liar and Dumbledore a senile old fool. Only few people believed them and even less had the courage to stand up to the rest. Harry had a hard year ahead of him, no doubt.

Lily couldn't help wondering about what Elinor would think. Her parents were known to be as fanatic as the Death Eaters, with the only difference that they hated them. Just as the Death Eaters believed that all Muggles and Muggle-borns should be killed, Mr and Mrs Shiras believed all Death Eaters should be wiped out. But Elinor had not shown any kind of reaction to Umbridge's stupid speech, not agreement nor amusement or anything else.

_How come she can hide her emotions so well? Did she practise that and if yes, why? Did it ever give her an advantage?_

However, Lily had no more time to wonder about that, for now it was time to take the students to the common room.

"Just come with me", she told Elinor, before she got up, beckoned Terry and then called out to the first-years.

* * *

In a kind of daze Elinor followed Lily through seemingly endless corridors and up several flights of stairs. Everything here was so _big. _And she had no idea how she was supposed to find her way back to the Great Hall the next morning.

This evening had held a few nasty surprises waiting for her. First of all, after arriving in the headmaster's office, Professor Snape had given her a fright by simply being there. Black hair, dark eyes, and black robes – almost everything about him had screamed "Death Eater" at her.

The other teachers and Dumbledore had turned out to be less scary, and the Headmaster had welcomed her to the school. However, she was not about to be fooled by his appearance or mannerisms, though. Her parents had told her that Voldemort feared that man. Now _that_ was scary.

And then that Sorting Hat had given her the next shock. Apparently being able to see into her mind, it had actually suggested she should join Slytherin House.

Slytherin. The house Voldemort had been in, and which brought out some new black magicians every year. Appalled and frightened, she had somehow managed to communicate her thoughts to the hat and it had decided to place her in Ravenclaw instead. Elinor had let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately for her, no-one else had heard the Sorting Hat's crazy ideas.

Her Head of House, Professor Flitwick, a tiny old man, had taken her to her table in the Great Hall.

By now, they had reached the tower in which the rooms of Ravenclaw House were. Lilian stopped in front of a door.

"Unlike the other houses, we don't have a password. To enter, we need to answer a question asked by the eagle knocker here."

She demonstrated the process to the younger kids and Elinor. The question wasn't particularly difficult, she found, and had a feeling she was in the right house.

Once inside, several first-years gasped in astonishment and Elinor, too, felt overwhelmed. The Common Room was a spacious, airy room with high-arched windows that allowed a good view over the mountains, and the domed ceiling was painted with stars and a carpet covered the floor. Everything was furnished in the colours of Ravenclaw, which Elinor had begun to like.

But then something else caught her eye. The statue of a woman wearing a tiara, smiling faintly. As if that woman was a magnet, Elinor moved towards her and took a closer look.

_I know her._

As soon as she had that thought, Elinor knew how absurd it was. She had never seen that women in real life before, or a painting or anything.

"This is Rowena Ravenclaw, the founder of our house", Lily, who had moved to stand next to her, explained. "Take a closer look at the diadem."

Elinor did as asked and noticed that words had been etched into it.

_Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure._

Elinor couldn't help but agree. This was a very sensible statement.

"It's the Ravenclaw family motto", Lilian went on. "Supposedly, the tiara possessed magical properties, enhancing the abilities of the wearer. But it went missing many centuries ago... No-one knows anything about it any more. But I would like to find out what happened to it..."

* * *

While Lily and Terry told the first-years where to find their dormitories and bathrooms, Elinor had sat down at one of the tables and pulled out a list of some sorts. After the little ones had disappeared, Lilian went over to her.

"Ah, right, you need to choose what kind of subjects you want to take. I chose Arithmancy and Ancient Runes."

Taking a look at the list, she saw that Elinor had already ticked Divination.

"That's an interesting choice", Lily observed. "I have no talent in that area, and I heard the teacher is a big disappointment..."

Elinor looked thoughtful, but not about to change her mind.

"Are you mute?", the dark-haired witch finally asked, when Elinor still hadn't spoken a word.

"N-no."

Lily gave her an inquiring look, but Elinor didn't meet her gaze.

"Then why don't you say something?"

"I-I d-d-don't like t-to t-t-talk."

Lilian immediately realised why that was the case.

"I see. But don't you think that practise might help?"

"N-no."

"You don't think so, or it doesn't help?"

"D-doesn't help."

"Oh dear."

_Some of the teachers are just going to love this._

After deliberating for a while, Elinor finally chose Ancient Runes. She just left the piece of parchment on the table and Lily guessed that a house elf would come to pick it up later.

"This way", Lily said, leading the way up the staircase. "This is our dormitory. Boys can't come up here, but we could go into theirs if we wanted to."

Elinor nodded and made her way over to the only unoccupied bed in the room. Her trunk had already been brought up and she now started taking out the things she was going to need. To Lilian's greatest surprise, Elinor climbed onto her bed and pulled the curtains shut. After a while, a thin arm appeared and dropped her clothes onto a chair. Elinor didn't emerge again.

_Now that's definitely weird._

While some of her classmates had been a bit shy at the beginning, none had ever hid behind curtains or such. Or went to the toilet to get changed. Lilian found that a bit extreme.

_I guess I'd better keep an eye on her. Who knows what she might do next..._

Shaking her head, Lilian gathered her stuff and disappeared into the bathroom. One of the other girls followed her.

"Hey, Lily, do you know what's the matter with her?"

"No, unfortunately not. She didn't speak a word to me the whole evening until I asked her whether she was mute. She isn't, but she's stuttering, so she doesn't like to talk. But I've never seen a student act the way she did – not even first-years are like that. Something about her is very strange."

"Hm. Do you know anything about her?"

"Barely. I know her parents a little, they both work at the Ministry. Her father in the Department of Mysteries, her mother deals with magical creatures. I did know they had a daughter, and apparently Lydia took her along to work occasionally, but I had never seen her before. It's a rare thing that parents decide to teach their children themselves, especially considering we have highly qualified teachers here at Hogwarts – apart from Trelawney, perhaps. And I have my doubts about Umbridge, as well."

"You don't seem to like her."

"I can't stand her attitude", Lily replied sourly. "She came here with the intention of changing the school. The Ministry should really focus on other things."

The girl moved closer to speak in a whisper.

"Do you mean what Potter said? About You-Know-Who? Do you think he's really back?"

"I see no reason why Harry Potter would invent such a story. He barely needs or wants more attention than he already gets. We have no way to prove he is telling the truth, but it would be better to assume he is, and prepare for what might come, instead of pretending everything is all right. A student died last summer. Nothing is all right."

"I guess so... but what can we do?"

"Study hard and be ready. I'm afraid there isn't much else we could do. Voldemort is up to something, and the fact that the Ministry is doing a good job at ignoring him is a great advantage for him. As long as he doesn't do anything too drastic, he can continue gathering supporters and planning what do to once he is ready to come out of hiding. When that time comes, we'll have to fight. So we need to be well prepared."

"And if he hasn't returned?"

"It can never hurt to be good at school or know how to protect yourself, can it?"

"I see your point. Well then, good night."

"Good night."

_I hope I can convince some more people... but it won't be easy._

* * *

**A/N: Powderham Castle in Devon actually exists, you can find pictures of it on the internet. I checked out several castles in Devon and decided to use this one, mostly because of the beautiful castle grounds. Also, Lily's mother Alice is sometimes referred to as "Lady Alice", because that is her title in the Muggle world.  
**


	3. Settling In

**Settling in**

* * *

Elinor woke with a start and tried to figure out why she wasn't in her room, but inside a tent. Then she realised it wasn't a tent, but a four-poster with blue curtains. Her bed in the Ravenclaw tower.

_That's right... I did come here last night..._

With a soft moan, she tried to sit up. Lying on top of her many bruises surely hadn't helped with getting rid of them.

Pulling one of the curtains aside, she noticed the other girls still appeared to be sleeping and she decided to use that to go to the bathroom. To her great relief, she found out that the showers were in separate cubicles she could lock from the inside, similar to the toilets in here. There were also hooks for her clothes and a board for watches and such, and a mirror. More mirrors were hanging over the sinks outside.

_Well, at least I'll have some privacy here._

It wasn't that Elinor was too embarrassed to undress in front of the other girls, in fact, she didn't care about that. No, it was the many bruises and remains of other wounds she didn't want them to see.

Even though she appeared cold and indifferent to others, Elinor was very much aware of her surroundings and so she had already gathered that Lilian thought her to be strange. And she didn't really want to increase that by letting her know how little she got along with her own parents.

After dressing in blouse, skirt and stockings, she went back to the dormitory and took a closer look at the cloak and tie. The tie was striped in the colours blue and bronze, the cloak black with blue and on the chest the Ravenclaw crest had been stitched. Carefully tracing it with her index, she admired again the combination of colours. The Gryffindor uniforms looked good as well, while she felt that Hufflepuff looked a bit plain and boring. Slytherin had an interesting combination of colours, too.

"Do you know how to tie your tie?", a voice behind her asked.

Elinor jumped and spun around to face Lily, who was just putting her tie around her neck.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Do you need help?"

Elinor nodded.

"All right. Watch."

Elinor did as asked and tried to memorise it so she could mimic the other girl. Unfortunately, it had looked easier than it actually was, and soon, she was at a loss what to do.

"Wait, I'll help you", Lily said, reaching out to untangle Elinor's tie.

But as she brushed Elinor's shoulder and some of the bruises in the process, the latter flinched away, trying to avoid the pain. Frowning, Lilian pulled her hands back.

"What's the matter?"

Knowing she wouldn't get away with being silent, Elinor decided to lie.

"I-I h-hurt m-my shoulder..."

"I see. I'll try not to touch it."

After successfully straightening out Elinor's tie, Lily undid her own and stood next to Elinor so she could see it from her own perspective. This made it easier, and Elinor managed to tie it correctly.

"Good. This is just a matter of practise, in a few days you'll be able do do it in your sleep."

Elinor pulled her cloak over her shoulders, grabbed her bag and followed Lilian out of the dormitory.

At breakfast, Flitwick handed them their timetables as well as the books that had arrived for Elinor this morning. Not being happy about dragging the heavy books around all day, Elinor drew out her wand, pointed it at the books and stared at them intently for a while, until she felt she was calm enough to say the incantation aloud without stuttering.

To her relief, it worked out fine, and she put the books in her bag. Lily had watched her closely.

"Do you always use magic like that?"

"Y-yes. M-mispronouncing the w-words i-is dangerous, I-I know th-that."

"That's right... but what would you do if you ever were attacked?"

"N-nothing, I-I suppose."

"Nothing?! That's not very clever! You need to be able to fight back if you have to!"

Elinor decided not to argue with that. She had never fought back, not in her whole life. And she didn't see what good trying to change that now would bring her.

Checking her timetable, she saw they would have a double lesson potions with the Hufflepuffs, then Transfigurations and after that double Herbology with Slytherin.

After lunch, Elinor would have double Divination and her first lesson in Defence against the Dark Arts.

_What a great way to start the week. Snape _and_ Umbridge. Great._

Even though she hadn't shown it before, she greatly disliked the ministry witch. Simply because she worked for the Ministry and they thought Potter to be a liar. And Elinor had been taught to think of him as a hero, a shining figure in the fight against the darkness incarnated as Voldemort. Anyone who said anything against him was an enemy or simply crazy. That was what she believed – what she had to believe. She had never before questioned her parents' way of seeing things.

Elinor enjoyed breakfast, especially since Lilian had assured her there was no need to eat as fast as possible, as long as she was in time for classes.

"You can also take food along to eat during the breaks", the Prefect had explained. "You shouldn't eat during classes, though. Teachers won't like that."

After finishing breakfast, they made their way down to the dungeons, where Snape held his classes. The damp and gloomy surroundings didn't do much to ease Elinor's tension. Nor did Snape himself, when he finally appeared.

Elinor chose a cauldron at the back of the room, next to one of the walls on the side. She felt a little safer when not surrounded by other students. Lily had chosen a table at the front, apparently she wasn't scared of their Professor at all. Elinor took out her book and the tools she would need for brewing. In the meantime, a wave of Snape's wand had made the list of ingredients needed appear on the blackboard and all students made their way over to the cupboards where they were stored. Elinor waited patiently until there was some space, for she had no intention of getting shoved or trapped among the others. Once it was her turn, she quickly selected the ingredients needed while checking if they were still good. Spotting one that looked a little strange, she pulled it out and took a closer look. And indeed, this one would only serve anyone as fertiliser. Looking around, she couldn't find any kind of basket or something for waste, so she took it along to get rid of it after the lesson. To make sure she wouldn't accidentally put it into her cauldron, she set it aside.

All the time she had had the nagging feeling that Snape had been watching her and so she wasn't particularly surprised when he moved over to her.

"What do you intend to do with this, Miss Shiras?", he asked, holding up the soon-to-be fertiliser.

"Th-throw it o-out, S-sir."

"And why would you do that?"

Instead of replying – which would have taken ages – she carefully took the herb and showed him the spots that had alerted her to its decreasing quality.

Snape looked surprised. Peering down the length of his rather long nose, he took a closer look.

"Indeed", he finally said. "I must confess I almost missed that. You seem to have exceptional good eyes, Miss Shiras."

"Th-thank you."

"Five points to Ravenclaw."

Snape turned away, taking the herb with him. Almost the whole class was now staring at Elinor. Snape didn't miss that.

"What are you all looking at? Get back to brewing that potion, or you're all bound to _lose _some points."

He hadn't even raised his voice, but the students didn't need being told twice.

For the rest of the two hours, Snape left her alone. He passed her cauldron from time to time, but was apparently not displeased with her work. He seemed to generally like the Ravenclaws better than the Hufflepuffs, and one of the Hufflepuffs was his favourite victim. That boy managed to lose his house thirty points in one lesson.

_I'm glad that didn't happen to me._

After class ended, they were told to leave a phial at the desk and leave. Elinor carefully filled some of her potion into a small phial and handed it in, taking care not to look at Snape in the process. Despite the fact that he had awarded her some points, she was still terrified of him.

Lily was waiting for her.

"That was a surprise, I must admit", she told Elinor. "Snape usually prefers taking points to awarding them – especially for something like that. You must've really surprised him."

Transfigurations turned out to be a bit more of a challenge. At the beginning, McGonagall asked questions and occasionally called students to answer them if the ones raising their hands had already said enough (like Lily, who was eager to contribute something to every class) and so Elinor got picked a few times. And answering took her a considerable amount of time. McGonagall looked slightly impatient whenever asking Elinor, despite her knowing the right answer every time.

McGonagall was just as talented as Snape to make Elinor _very_ nervous, and so some of her spells went awry. McGonagall of course wasn't pleased with that, which made Elinor even more nervous and it took her several minutes to calm herself enough to try another time. But this time, to her teacher's apparent surprise, it worked flawlessly. McGonagall eyed her critically over the rims of her glasses.

"Miss Shiras, would you please explain to me what just happened? Why couldn't you do it right from the start?"

"I-I-I - "

Feeling panic overcome her, she couldn't go on.

"Well?"

"Professor, if I might", Lily interjected.

"Yes, Miss Achura?"

"I think you're putting her on edge, Professor. Even if you don't mean to. She told me yesterday she doesn't like to talk because of her stuttering, and it makes doing spells right difficult for her. And I imagine that it gets worse when she's nervous."

Elinor gave Lilian a surprised look. She had actually figured that out pretty quickly.

_I need to be more careful around her._

"Is that so, Miss Shiras?", McGonagall asked.

Elinor nodded, not trusting her voice.

"I see. So you couldn't do it right the first time because you were too nervous."

"Y-yes."

"I see. Well, I don't require you to do as many transformations or as quickly as possible in a limited amount of time, it is enough if you finish every exercise until the end of the lesson. If it is easier for you to work at your own speed, feel free to do so. Show me the results when class is over."

"Yes, P-professor."

_Well, that's good. If she insisted on standing here and watching me until I did it right, I probably wouldn't ever get it right..._

This arrangement made it a lot easier for Elinor to do the exercises she was supposed to do, but she was still not at ease. Her strange method of using magic had made her classmates curious, and they kept looking in her direction, which Elinor found quite unnerving.

At the end of the lesson, Elinor put her stuff into her bag and then took the transfigured items to her teacher's desk. McGonagall examined each of them closely, before pronouncing her work a good one. Elinor slowly exhaled.

"However, Miss Shiras, you need to concentrate on what you are doing a bit more, your work can still be improved. But you have a great potential. And I will try my best not to 'put you on edge', as Miss Achura put it."

Her eyes were sparkling as she looked at Lily, who was waiting for Elinor. The latter rolled her eyes.

"Professor, please take into consideration that Elinor isn't used to teachers, or having classmates. I don't know how her parents organised her lessons, but I doubt it was anything like Hogwarts. And we had Snape in the morning."

"Ah. Now I can see how _that_ would be unsettling."

"Exactly. Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to go to the greenhouses."

Elinor followed Lilian out of the castle and across the lawn to where the greenhouses were, near the Forbidden Forest. Not that she had any intentions of finding out why it was forbidden. She could imagine that rather well.

Most of her class as well as the Slytherins were already there and to her dismay, Elinor recognised the pale-blonde boy she had stumbled across yesterday. He didn't seem to recognise her, though, and ignored her. As a matter of fact, he ignored most of her house, only talking occasionally to some of his own house. They were all as mean-looking as Elinor had expected them to be.

Professor Sprout appeared and let them into Greenhouse 5. Like McGonagall, she started by asking questions, but was content to choose the students willing to answer. And she was much more ready to award points than the other two teachers had been.

Somehow, Elinor was disappointed that they didn't have any subjects with the Gryffindors, she would have liked to get a closer look at the The Boy Who Lived, but apparently, she would have to contend herself with seeing him at the meals. Not that she would have talked to him or anything. She was just curious as to what kind of person he was. He was a hero, after all.

Elinor's patience was tried by Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin Prefect, badmouthing Potter and his friends – especially Hermione Granger, who, as Lily told her in a whisper, was a Gryffindor Prefect. The reason for that was simply her being Muggle-born. Something Elinor couldn't comprehend.

Finally, class was over and they were free to have lunch. After finishing her meal, Elinor wrote a short letter to her parents and then spent almost her entire lunch break looking for the owlery. Her letter wasn't very long and written as follows:

"I have been sorted into Ravenclaw House. Lilian Achura has been asked to look after me and she doesn't seem to mind that much. I don't know yet when the Quidditch try-outs will be, but I chose Divination and Ancient Runes. The first lessons were quite all right."

Elinor saw no need to tell them anything more, and her parents had instructed her not to write anything the Ministry would consider dangerous, for there was a possibility they would intercept owls and read the post.

And after that, Elinor managed to get lost on her way trying to find the tower where the Divination teacher resided. She had no idea where to go, and since she knew Lilian hadn't chosen that subject herself, going back to the Great Hall or the Ravenclaw common room wasn't an option. Elinor figured she would be able to find the hall, since all she had to do was descend to the ground floor and look for it there, but finding Ravenclaw tower was a different matter altogether.

"Have you lost your way?"

Elinor whirled around. The speaker turned out to be a female ghost, a young lady.

"You are the new Ravenclaw girl, are you not?"

"Y-yes."

Strangely enough, the ghost didn't particularly scare her, probably because she knew a dead person couldn't harm her.

"I am the Grey Lady, the ghost of Ravenclaw tower."

"I-I didn't know."

"Who I was, or that I was the ghost of Ravenclaw?"

"Both."

"I see. By the way, you seemed to be in some kind of distress. Where were you headed?"

"I h-have Divination now."

"Ah. I can take you there, if you like."

"Thank you."

The Grey Lady floated down the corridor and left at the next intersection. Elinor hurried not to lose track of her.

After climbing some stairs and walking down more corridors, they finally reached a landing without any doors.

"The classroom is up there", the lady said, pointing at a trapdoor in the ceiling. "You will have to knock, class has already started."

"Thank you very much."

"Hm." The ghost tilted her head to one side. "You are not half as nervous around me as around others."

_So she's been watching._

"You are not scary."

She laughed.

"Is that so? Well, I suppose some of them can be scary, but they are nice people for most part. Well then, I will take my leave now. I am sure we will meet again."

As the Grey Lady disappeared through the floor, Elinor drew out her wand and knocked.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, but then the trapdoor opened and a ladder descended towards her. Elinor climbed it as quickly as she could.

"S-sorry", she told the woman who – despite her looks – had to be the teacher.

"Don't worry about it, dear. Filius told me I would have a new student, and all new students tend to get lost. Take a seat and relax, for the Inner Eye won't work properly if you let your surroundings distract you."

Elinor did as asked and sat down at one of the small tables, then she listened to what Professor Trelawney was saying.

Being totally new to the subject, Elinor didn't say anything, she just took down notes and listened. None of her classmates seemed too talented in that aspect and she suspected they had either chosen this subject out of curiosity, or because they thought they would be able to pass the exams without much effort.

Elinor's case was different. When her maternal grandmother had died, she had left behind a crystal ball among other things. Not being interested in it at all, Lydia had allowed her daughter to have it instead. Elinor had found it a fascinating object from the start. She had spent hours gazing into it and sometimes, she had thought to see something moving in there. However, she hadn't been able to be totally sure this hadn't just been her imagination. Choosing Divination was an attempt to find out what it had been.

However, no sort of revelation took part during her first lesson and a rather disappointed Elinor followed the others toward the classroom now occupied by Umbridge.

That lesson turned out to be the most boring of all. Their teacher had decided that there would be no practical exercises during the whole year, which caused some people to frown, Lily among them. But no-one said anything. Umbridge found that it would be enough for them to know how to perform the spells in theory. Elinor basically agreed with that, but she would prefer to know whether she had memorised the theory correctly. And the only way to test that was to try it out.

But then again, Umbridge most likely didn't believe that Voldemort _had_ returned, and was going along with the Ministry's plans. But why that included the students not learning to defend themselves Elinor couldn't understand.

She still did her best to pay attention, take notes and answer any question directed at her. She could learn something that way (even if it wasn't much) and earn her house a few points. Umbridge liked it if students answered her questions precisely and didn't argue. And Elinor had perfected that over the years. If Umbridge now believed her to be mindless and stupid, please. Elinor wasn't anything like that. But she was anything but rebellious. Any attempts at rebellion had always been suppressed by her parents.

After class ended, they made their way back to the common room, since it would be some time before dinner started. Lilian threw her bag into one of the chairs.

"I – don't – believe – it!", she fumed.

Elinor gave her a questioning look.

"That Umbridge! The Ministry! Not allowing us to learn how to defend ourselves!"

Elinor was a bit shocked to see that Lily's eye colour had changed. Usually, it was something between grey and blue, but now they were of a dark grey, just like clouds before the storm came.

"You do realise what is going on, don't you?"

"Sh-she believes the M-Ministry and n-not P-potter."

"Well, yes. Basically that's the problem. But you realise why they won't let us learn spells?"

Elinor shook her head.

"Let's sit down."

Lily led the way over to one of the chairs by the window.

"Fudge fears that Dumbledore may be planning to overthrow him, and that Harry is helping him."

"R-ridiculous."

"Totally. Now Fudge in his madness thinks that Dumbledore is building an army of students or something, and to prevent that from happening, he sent Umbridge here. She is to make sure we don't learn anything that could help us overthrowing him."

"D-defence? H-how could that b-be d-d-dangerous?"

"The subject is called 'Defence Against the Dark Arts', yes, but that doesn't mean it only is about defensive spells. Some of them are quite the opposite, and they can inflict heavy damage – even kill. Of course, you can also use spells you learn in Charms or Transfigurations for fighting, but what you learn in Defence is best-suited for duels. There."

Elinor thought about that.

"B-but what can we do? P-practise without a t-teacher? D-dangerous."

"Yeah, that's the problem. And if we did it in front of someone going along with the Ministry, we'd be in trouble..."

_So there is nothing we can do. Great._

"I'll think of something", Lilian muttered. "But for now we'd better keep quiet. Don't talk to anyone about that. If you're asked questions, don't reply. Should be easy for you", she added with a grin.

Elinor didn't smile in return. She wasn't used to doing that. And trying to do it surely would look funny. Instead, she sat down at one of the tables and took out some parchment, her quill and inkwell, and her new books. She lifted the spell she had placed on them and instead worked some others on them. Protection against water, fire and theft. You never knew. She expected some of the Slytherins to be capable of anything.

"Say, have you ever considered doing magic non-verbally?", Lily asked her.

"N-no. D-didn't know th-that was p-p-possible."

"We'll learn how to do that next year", the Prefect explained. "And it would make things a lot easier for you. If you like, we could start early so you can use spells you already learned non-verbally, before learning new ones next year."

Elinor gave that some thought. It was an interesting idea, and it would make using magic not only easier, but also a lot less dangerous. However, Elinor wasn't sure if she was ready to allow Lilian to teach her. She seemed nice, but why would anyone want to be nice to her? That didn't make sense. Aggression, hatred and being punished were normal. This wasn't.

"I-I'll think a-about i-it."

"Sure. It's your decision. I'm not going to force you if you don't want to. You could also ask the teachers for help, if you're more comfortable about that."

Elinor nodded, already certain she wouldn't do that, either. Opening her Potions book, she started with the essay Snape had given them as homework.


End file.
